Vatican City (AsiaNews) - "When God forgives, He forgives like a Father and not a court Judge, who reads a sentence and says, 'Acquitted for lack of evidence'. He forgives us from within. He forgives because he holds this person in His heart , said Pope Francis during his homily at Mass celebrated this morning at Casa Santa Marta, during which he stressed that a "good priest" is moved, is committed to people's lives.
"God - he said - has compassion. He has compassion for each of us, He has compassion for humanity and sent his Son to heal, to regenerate, "to" renew ". "It 's interesting – he continued - that we all know the parable of the Prodigal Son, it is said that when his father - who is a figure of God who forgives - sees his son, he had compassion. God's compassion is not pity: they have nothing to do with one another. I can have mercy on a dog that is dying", but the compassion of God is different: it is to "taking on the problem, putting yourself in the other person's situation, with a Father’s heart”. Pope Francis said this is why He, "sent his Son."
"Jesus cured people, however, he is not a 'healer'. No! He looked after the people as a sign, as a sign of God's compassion, to save, to seek out and return the lost sheep, the money that disappeared from that lady’s purse. God has compassion. God places his Father’s heart on the line, He carries each of us in it. And when God forgives, he forgives as a Father and not as a court judge, who reads a sentence and says, 'Acquitted for lack of evidence'. He forgives us from within. He forgives because He carries that person on His heart".
Jesus, he said, was sent to "bring glad tidings to free the oppressed". Jesus "is sent by the Father to enter each of us, freeing us of our sins, of our problems and carry them for us." "That's what makes a priest: the ability to be moved, to engage in people's lives, because a priest is a priest, as Jesus is the priest. How many times - and then we have to go to confession – do we criticize those priests, who are not interested in what happens in their congregation, who do not care. No, that not a good priest! A good priest is involved ".
A good priest is involved in "all human problems."
Concluding the Pope spoke of the service offered to the Church by Card. Javier Lozano Barragan, who attended the Mass on the occasion of the celebration of his 60 years of priesthood. Francis recalled his commitment to the Pontifical Council for Pastoral Health Care Workers, "in the service of the Church, which tends to the sick." "Thanks be to God - he said - for these 60 years of priesthood," " there is a link between God’s compassion to this day and this is the Lord’s gift that is" Card. Barragan: "Being able to live like this for 60 years."